St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-04-08
LIVING ON sl5 A WEEK.
An Income of $3.50 Year Sustains
Four People.
Struggles of Clerk to Make Both
Ends Meet on Small Salary.
New York Journal.

New York Journal.
Il know there are men who are worse
off" was the remark of store clerk day
or two ago. land that | ought to be thank
full that L have good health and am Ill
steady employment; but SIS is the closest
possible work for a family OF four persons,
can tell you, and it makes me enylous,
indeed. when | think how comfortable L
could be it / only had SIS more. L live up
to my wages and can not help it."
There are so many men in various occu-
patlons who 1--we up TO very much larger
salaries that some curiosity was expressed
as to how the fifteen dollars -a-week clerk
managed not to live beyond his, and yet
support wife and two little children, aged
and respectively. TO Philadelphia
Press reporter he explained in general
way:
Il am not going to tell you how / mar
rled oE Sl2 a week. and boarded until my
second child was born. and then got a raise
of wages to $15. That's neither here nor
there. What L discovered was that people
did not like children in boarding house.
and began to wonder what OH earth l was
to do. However. my wfe's uncle came to
our rescue. He suggested we should take
little house way down town and he would
furnish it for us. There are plenty of nice
little five OF SiXroomed residences at the
extremes of the city, OH streets that are
perfectly respectable and genteel, and the
rent only $40 or Sl2 month. | got one
Tor ~ 30 week two bedrooms. Kitchen,
parior sitting-room and bath room. q ncle
George was as good as his word. but it took
all the hundred odd dollars l had saved
while boarding to buy kitchen things and
linen and picture or so for the bare walls
nNt f.x Il
earnest
Now, you must understand that poor
people like us have to live for the sake of
living. The wife must be able and willing
to wash all the clothes do all the housew ork.
BAKE the bread and be handy with the
needle In the way of making over old
clothes for the children. The husband must
walk backward and forward from his work;
must drink and smoke either not at all or
only on rare occasions. and find all his
amusement and happiness in his children
and wife. 1t is very much like shaving for
crust and sup. lots of people say, and
no doubt you have to be born with a tenn
permanent which can be cheerful in poverty.
l think was. But to get back to my
housekeeping
Coal aid light cost me 81 week, sum-
ner and winter together We only have
TWO hreS, one in the kitchen and ore in the
sitting room. Our kitchen is very COM
Portable, so we often sit there. Bread costs
us % cents week; that is, the flour, etc..
cost about that amount. Our milk bill
runs into 20 cents, as the children want
glass or so at meals. Butter and groceries
never exceed 81, vegetables 81, and meat
another 50. Then we use about so cents for
eggs. AS for clothes, put myself down
for 500 year, including boots. / buy
servlceable things and l always wear my
oldest about the house. Another $50
clothes my wife and children, with $40
more for their hats and shoes. Then
want $50 year Ifor doctor and medicine,
and my expenditures will foot up as fol-
IowS.